Spalding University, a private liberal arts college in Louisville, Kentucky, opened a new athletic center this week, nicknamed the “Field of Dreams.” But not everyone is celebrating. 
A spokesperson from Simmons College of Kentucky, the private historically Black college nearby, called the center a symbol of White privilege, sparking a broader discussion about gentrification and the disparities between HBCUs and predominantly White institutions.
Simmons College Spokesperson Krystal Goodner was addressing students and staff at the first Truthful Tuesday, a monthly series of campus-wide conversations spurred by the opening of the new athletic center. The event was an opportunity for students to share their feelings about the more than seven acres of fields within view but out of reach.
“This is not a Simmons versus Spalding situation,” Goodner said. But “when our students go outside and look at that field, it’s almost as if white privilege is being dangled in front of their face.”
According to Simmons College President Rev. Dr. Kevin Cosby, years ago, Simmons College tried to buy the property on which the athletic center now stands, and Ford Motors approached the college about creating an advanced manufacturing plant there, though it never came to be. In 2014, Spalding University bought the land for $1 million from Huber Book Enterprises and Dover Energy, finishing the athletic center this September.
To some students, the new center is a symbol of the resources they lack at Simmons College – and the resources HBCUs lack more broadly. HBCUs have historically struggled with funding. Their endowments fall behind non-HBCUs by at least 70 percent, and a smaller portion of their revenue comes from private contracts, gifts and grants – 17 percent versus 25 percent, according to a 2019 report by the American Council on Education and the United Negro College Fund. From 2003 to 2015, private HBCUs like Simmons College have seen a 42 percent drop in federal funding.
